With the same look like in “The Last Gunman” Franco Nero has calmly shown up in the hall of Rogner Hotel, where the present journalists expected with curiosity the man who has done 145 films.This is the first time that Nero comes in Albania, because he himself says he has only seen the mountains while he was making a film in the neighboring country, Macedonia.Everything he knows on Albania Nero has learned from the media and from a friend of his who is also friend to an Albanian politician. The famous actor not only in Italy but in world as he himself says has visited 95 countries of the globe, while he cannot hide the wish to know Albania further.With sincerity he said that his presence in Tirana, where he was invited to participate in the Grand Gala evening which crowned the prizes of T.I.F.F. ’03, is linked also with the support he wants to give to the new director Alessandro Dominici. “I am in this film festival also encouraged by the director of ‘The Last Gunman’ Alessandro Dominici. During the time I have worked with him we became friends. I have always liked to help the young people and if my presence in this festival could help him it is a pleasure for me.”

“...I have always liked to help the young people and if my presence in this festival could help him it is a pleasure for me.”

- In a press Conference he said that:“when I was young I wanted to become a director” -

In the festival Nero interprets in a black-and-white movie and he sys that he has alsways liked this kind of film and that along with a group of friends, who have become famous directors, have started their career in this type of films.Franko Nero, wellknown in Albania with the interpretations in a series of films by outstanding directors.“When I was 20 I wanted to become a director. I went to Rome along with a group of friends with the project to realize a film. Now, part of my friends are directors while I became and remained an actor. I have always worked to help many young directors. My son is a director as he comes from a family of artists. He as well has made short movies while actually he is working in New York with a film featuring Angelina Jolie and Michael Moor.”Even though he admits that during his long career has interpreted in all genres of film, including action, comedy, musical, dramatic, for children and others, Nero has become known with Western films, a genre he cultivates also in T.I.F.F. ’03. Independently of the title of the film he won’t be bsolutely thelast gunman.“I will continue to make films ‘western’ to honor two of the great directors I have worked with, Sergio Leone and John Huston, who was the first to discover me,” Nero said.Maybe even those people whop admire Nero should be grateful to the great U.S. director of western films, as on the contrary we would have had a doctor more and an actor less. It is this the profession Franco Nero confesses he would have chosen in case he wouldn’t make the actor. “If I hadn’t become an actor. “If I hadn’t made the actor I would have made the doctor. I have many friends of mine who exert this profession.”Franco Nero is known in the world cinematography also as the actor incarnating national heroes. During all his careerhe has interpreted at least 39 characters of different nationalities,and among them several national heroes.In Italy he has interpreted Garibaldi, in Turkey the role of Ataturk, and the same in Romania, Macedonia, the United States and, why not, he might do it even in Albania. “If any Albanian director offered me a good film I would consider it,”he says. Even though he has played in many films it is quite difficult for him to make distinctions saying that films are to him like children are to a mother and as such he loves them all.However, he unfolds that his favorite film is “Carmen”, a movie he ahs realized along with his friends. “When they called me and told me that they wanted to make a film, I cancelled a contract with Warner Brothers. Don Jose is a character not easily to forget. He is a character of all times,”Nero said.Several times nominated for Oscar and participant in many fesstivals, Nero said, congratulating the initiative of T.I.F.F. that “festivals always gather different films and cultures.”

The Actor of About 145 films in Tirana

Hero of more than 145 films will participate in the Grand Gala that will be organized in the Palace of Congresses in Tirana, on December 7, giving thus honor to the finalization of the first International Festival of Film taking place in Tirana. Known as a protagonist of Western films, Franco Nero who has been so much identified by the media with the character of Django, has presented in the competition of this festival with the short film “The Last Gunman”, directed by Alessandro Dominici and with the music of the extraordinary Ennio Morricone. Dominici, present during the days of the festival, said that before this film was made he did not personally know Franco Nero. But, no other than Him could act in an Western film… The contacts with the agency representing the great actor and the passion Nero still nourishes for this kind of films was also the story of realizing the film, that by competing in T.I.F.F. ’03 brought at the same time the famous actor in Tirana. Acting in more than 40 national and international festivals Present in the Grand Gala Crowning Big Prizes and winner of several awards in Italy, Portugal, and Chile, this film realized in 2002 does not have a real script as it does nothing but develops the subject. Considered as a film for the man who accepts fatal challenges through the optimism, the main character commits suicide with a smile in his face, just to show the challenge against himself, or even more against the humanity. Franco Nero, from Parma (north Italy) showed early his talent since he was a teenager. The first film he made dates back in 1964, “The Bible”, which would consist of a crucial point in his future career. He has collaborated with many directors, including Carlo Lizzani, Damiano Damiani, Luigi Zampa, Luis Bunuel, Salvatore Samperi, Elio Petri Marco Bellocchio. The Albanian public knows him from the serial film “The Judge”, “Corruption in the Palace of Justice”, but also from other names which he became famous with in the cinematographic career, “Django”, (1966), a film he continued in 1987, The famous Italian actor Franco Nero, become wellknown for Albanians since in 1970-1980 will arrive as guest of honor in Tirana Film Festival